Exchange of nonpublic personal information via email jeopardizes your customers’ and members’ trust, while putting your company’s reputation at risk. Additionally, there are also many tangible costs; according to a 2010 study by the Ponemon Institute, the average organizational cost of a data breach is $214 (per compromised record).

Fully aware of these threats, federal and state governments have demanded improved data protection and enacted increased regulatory requirements, including HIPAA, HITECH Act, GLBA and State Data Security Laws (NV, MA and WA). Securing the nonpublic information of customers, members and business partners is no longer simply a value-added service – it’s the law.

So why not turn to the solution trusted by many of the most influential institutions including:
•Federal banking regulators, including FFIEC
•Divisions of the U.S. Treasury
•The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
•More than 20 state regulators
•More than 1,500 financial institutions
•More than 30 Blue Cross Clue Shield Organizations
•Health insurers protecting date for more than 70 million people; including WellPoint and HUMANA
•Nearly 1 in 5, or more then 1,200 hospitals in the U.S.

Please join us for breakfast on Wednesday, November 9, 2011 and learn about how your institution can become compliant with these laws using Intellicom and ZixCorp’s Email Encryption Services, while gaining transparent communication with all of ZixCorp’s customers through the ZixDirectory, the world’s only shared email encryption community.

One lucky participant will win an Amazon Kindle!

– Registration from 8:00 – 8:30 (Coffee and rolls will be served). Presentation from 8:30 – 10:00. –
– To register, call 308.237.0684 or register online at: http://register.zixcorp.com/intellicom 

While it may not be as widely known as, say, Alexander Graham Bell’s discovery of telephony (“Mr. Watson — come here!”) or as far-reaching in its implications as John Bardeen’s invention of the transistor, or Marc Andreesen’s work with the web browser, the concept of MANAGED NETWORK SERVICES is destined to someday be recognized as one of the great contributors in the development of modern human society.  I know, I know … this is a bold claim.  But hear me out.

Managed Services takes an important function – to many people and businesses a CRITICAL function – and provides a near-perfect solution:  cost effective reliability backed up with technological savvy to deal with the unexpected.

So, you may be asking, what IS “managed services” anyway?  Basically, it is the monitoring and support of a company’s computer network, including regular backups, virus scans, and installation of critical patches.  In addition, managed services provided by Intellicom includes regular monthly reporting and scheduled business reviews (usually quarterly) to discuss network activity and health, which helps our clients keep a finger on the pulse of their company’s technology. 

In the short few weeks since I joined the Intellicom team I’ve had the opportunity to work with many clients – some of which utilize managed services and some of which do not.  In working with both types of clients three basic themes have recurred so frequently as to become classified, in my view, as Cardinal Rules of business and life.

The first is this:  there is huge and immeasurable value in TEAM.  Business leaders who rely on Intellicom for support of their company’s technology get something that a single employee or two cannot provide: comfort in the knowledge that there is no single point of failure.  Not only does the Intellicom staff provide ready back-up in the form of “boots on the ground” support, but within our team are different levels of expertise in many different areas.  This weave of disciplines and expertise levels among multiple “strands” (i.e. technicians and engineers) provides a sturdy safety net for our customers.

The second basic theme I’ve noticed is this:  there is great risk in operating without a safety net. If a company relies on a single employee or computer hobbyist to support their network and they are sick or out of commission, the ability of that company to function using the benefits of technology is put on hold.  Likewise, companies who use internal staff (often the principal owner or manager) to support their servers and end-users seem to regularly experience downtime issues that result from missing software patches, lack of server maintenance, and other forms of neglect.  When downtime occurs at companies which do business as I just described, Intellicom is often brought in to help.  We always appreciate the opportunity to bring a company’s technology back “online” however we are nearly always struck by the recognition that such problems were easily avoidable, and avoidable inexpensively.  Remember the old saying “it always costs less to do it right the first time?”  The truth in that saying is brought home to us nearly every day as we are engaged to help resolve technology crises for companies who adopt a “do it yourself” strategy as it relates to technology.

The third cardinal rule that I’ve come to recognize is that there is great value found by engaging experts.  Both the NOC (Network Operations Center) team I’m privileged to work with, and the larger Intellicom team to which we belong, possess amazing skills and knowledge.  I have seen members of the NOC team go through the five stages of resolution faster than I go through the five stages of grief after learning that my favorite restaurant is out of the daily special.  Duane, Cody, Sam, Matt, and Caleb have abilities which quickly take them from initial notification to final documentation, sometimes in SECONDS!  Those crucial middle steps (fact-finding; determination of the right solution; and testing/verification) are what separates the wheat from the chaff at Intellicom, and those steps are where our team shines brightest.  From helping a client’s employee in a remote branch office regain the ability to print an invoice for a customer, to recovering critical files from an executive’s “crashed” laptop, the NOC technicians prove their capabilities every single day.  To some people, it almost seems like magic.  The NOC team knows otherwise … that it’s quality training, attention to detail, raw intellect, and the support of the entire Intellicom team – from the most junior technician to the most senior engineer.

Probably the most interesting thing I’ve noticed since joining the Intellicom team is our list of managed services clients, and the rank they hold in their respective industry peer groups.  It’s quite a list.  Without sharing specific names, I’ll just say this:  Intellicom clients are successful.  And I’m not just talking middle-of-the-pack success.  I’m talking leaders of their industries, at least of similar industries here in our part of the world.  Which leads me to a fourth cardinal rule …along the lines of cardinal rules your father or mother may have taught you, like “what goes around comes around” and “the cream always rises to the top.”  The fourth cardinal rule is this:  successful companies concentrate on what they do best, and leave the peripheral aspects of doing business to professionals, be they professional accountants, pest controllers, attorneys, insurers, or technologists.

For more information on Managed Services, or any other service that Intellicom offers, please call 308-237-0684 and select the sales option at our main menu.

In front of a global audience, Dan was able to share a little bit about Intellicom and talk about the business growth that we are experiencing here in Nebraska. Much of Intellicom’s recent success, Dan attributes to Intellicom participating in the Gallup EAS program, The program is designed to help strengthen Nebraska small businesses and startup enterprises through mentorship. The initiative combines business-to-business mentors and a Gallup entrepreneur consulting program to provide business development assistance to early-stage entrepreneurs and established firms with high-growth potential. It is aimed at creating a new generation of homegrown business success stories in Nebraska.

To watch the presentation in its entirety, please follow the following link: https://cc.readytalk.com/play?id=f4hhgq

 Setup
I do not think the setup could have been any easier. All I had to do was sign in with my Google account, download their music manager, and selected the iTunes option. After I hit next, the music manager application started automatically uploading all of my songs and playlists. That’s it, just a few mouse clicks and Google took care of the rest for me. It even recognized that I signed up for this service, and automatically integrated my android phone with all the same features. I should note that there were also options for Windows Media Player or to choose your own folders, which I didn’t try.

 Usability
The music player is launched via your favorite web browser.  I have found the controls to be very simple and intuitive. You can even delete songs out of you library using the delete key. Although this is technically a web page, it feels more like an application such as Windows Media Player or iTunes. The nicest part of this service is it automatically recognized updates to your iTunes. That means if you edit a playlist, add new songs, or make any other changes in iTunes, it automatically reflects those changes in your Google Music account. This is a monumental feature for me, because I have always been managing at least two sometimes three iTunes libraries. Now, I’m just going to worry about one, and let Google do the rest.

 Portability
I think the biggest draw to this service is the portability of it. Once you have all of your music uploaded, all you need is a WIFI or 3G connection to access it. That means you can go to any computer with an internet connection, and play your songs. It also means that you can play any of these songs on your phone, as long as you have some sort of connection.  The software also caches the most recent songs you have been listening too, so if you lose a connection, you aren’t totally stuck in silence.

 Conclusion
All in all, I have been pretty impressed with this service. I have also tried Amazon’s cloud music service, but I did not like that near as much. It was much more complicated to use, and Amazon only allows you 5 GB of space (roughly 800 songs). Google Music however, allows you to upload 20,000 songs! That should be sufficient for just about everyone. The only downfall as of right now is, that you cannot purchase songs directly from Google. However, buying them from iTunes and letting the music manager automatically upload them solves that problem. If I had to give this service a grade, I would give it an A-.

The initiative will combine business-to-business mentors and a Gallup entrepreneur consulting program to provide business development assistance to early-stage entrepreneurs and established firms with high-growth potential. It is aimed at creating a new generation of homegrown business success stories in Nebraska.

The 2010 Battelle Innovation study included a recommendation to provide training and mentoring for small businesses in high-growth industries. It will match certified business mentors with small business leaders to help accelerate growth and create greater likelihood of long-term success.

Approximately 30 volunteer small business and economic development leaders took part in a workshop hosted by Gallup to become certified mentors who will work with several small and start-up businesses across the state over the next two years.

Built on years of research and consulting experience, Gallup’s Entrepreneur Acceleration System (EAS) will be used to support and track the progress of participating businesses. The effort has potential to help 400 businesses statewide during the next two years. Mentors and the small businesses and entrepreneurs were identified by project sponsors and represent several of Nebraska’s high-growth industries.

  “This Silver Competency showcases our expertise in today’s technology market and demonstrates our knowledge of Microsoft and their products,” said Bryan Kuntz, VP of Operations. “We hope to accelerate our customers’ success by serving as technology advisors for their business demands.”

 “By achieving a Silver Competency, partners have proven themselves as specialized technology experts with the skills needed to best serve customers,” said Jon Roskill, corporate vice president, Worldwide Partner Group at Microsoft Corp. “The Silver Competency in the Microsoft Partner Network is designed to help customers identify services and solution providers that have demonstrated proof of their capability to deliver quality outcomes and customer satisfaction.”

The Microsoft Partner Network is designed to equip organizations that deliver products and services through the Microsoft platform with the training, resources and support they need to provide their customers superior experience and outcomes.

 The Internet is quickly becoming a critical resource for our personal and business lives.    With this huge increase on Internet dependency, managing Internet bandwidth and employee productivity is starting to become a very real business issue.    Facebook, You Tube, March Madness, Netflix, Twitter, eBay . . . . seems like the list is never ending for Internet sites that tear us away from being as productive as we could be.  In the opposite direction we are seeing more dependency on the Internet to run our mission critical business applications like e-mail, remote connectivity, customer service for our customers, and cloud-based hosted applications. 

So how do you control the business-use of your Internet and keep it separate from those items that are for personal use?  Do you know where your employees go when they use the Internet?  Do you know how much time they spend on the Internet during business hours?  Can you prioritize business Internet usage over personal Internet usage?  These are just a few of the questions that Intellicom set out to answer.

 Intellicom has spent the last year evaluating products that would help us answer these questions for our own business, as well as our customer’s businesses.    I can happily say we have finally found a solution that provides solutions to all our questions and needs.  Cymphonix is a company that provides Internet control and reporting solutions for the small to medium-sized businesses.  Cymphonix give us a window to see how our critical bandwidth is being used and tools to control how it is prioritized.  It allows us to filter out the dangerous items like web site viruses, botnets, and other spyware as we are browsing so our network is at less risk.  We can still access You Tube, but the amount of bandwidth and priority can be controlled below that of mission critical business traffic. 

 If you are interested in learning more, I’d be glad to share our experiences with this solution as well as talk about how you can try one of your own at zero cost for 30 days.  Intellicom will also be holding a customer event around this topic and the Cymphonix solution very soon.  For more information, call Jeff Hasenauer at 308-237-0684 ext 225.  Until then, happy surfing!

Intellicom Helpdesk

Intellicom looks to interns for growth

 As published in the Kearney Hub on Feb 26-27 2011

 By Kevin Hervert

 KEARNEY – The most innovative idea at one Kearney tech business isn’t technical at all. It’s how it finds its employees.

Intellicom is an outsource technology service provider that works primarily with Cisco, Microsoft, Hewlett Packard and Enterprise.

“We don’t write any software,” founder Dan Shundoff said. “We’re the IT department for our customers.”

Shundoff started Intellicom in 1994. For several years it was just him working for a few small businesses and households.

Shundoff said what’s really special about Intellicom isn’t the technology it uses, but is how it finds and builds its people.

“What’s really special is how we recruit, retain, and enhance employment and career opportunities,” he said.

He said to grow Intellicom, he had to concentrate on expanding its customer and revenue base. He knew he had to hire more help.

“I started to build a plan for growth to insulate my customer base in the unlikely event that something happens to me,” he said. “We had all our eggs in one basket and thought it was prudent and responsible to grow and add additional people and staffing.”

By 1998 there were five employees, and Intellicom moved out of Shundoff’s house to a business office.

He realized quickly that he would need to find more employees, and those employees should understand and perform technical tasks well.

He said his first step was to work with the internship program at the University of Nebraska at Kearney.

He then learned that instead of recruiting juniors and seniors who are already entertaining job offers after graduation, he could find students at the sophomore level.

That 120-hour internship program began with unpaid interns. Now, interns are paid in addition to earning college credit.

“If they stayed on for the next several years, after they graduated, this is where they wanted to work,” he said. “They knew us, we knew them, and they knew our customers. They were growing roots.”

He said that more than half of the current Intellicom staff members are products of that system. He said almost all the rest are working in information technology somewhere in Nebraska.

“The majority of them still built their career in central Nebraska,” he said. “Their roots really take hold.”

Shundoff now has 23 full-time employees at 1700 Second Ave. servicing more than 400 business customers between Lincoln and Denver.

Health care is a significant share of its business, as are manufacturing, retail and agriculture.

“We had 27 percent growth from the previous year last year,” Shundoff said. “We’re forecasting another 20 percent in 2011.”

 e-mail to:

kevin.hervert@hearneyhub.com

http://www.intellicominc.com/News/20101230.aspx

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